Shimon Peres, leader of Israel’s Labor party, said today that Israel should take the initiative and invite King Hussein of Jordan to negotiate peace with Israel and find a solution to the Palestinian problem.
He said that “the King needs peace as badly as we do,” and developments in the region, such as the decline of the PLO and the fact that the Palestinian issue is now separated from the Lebanese question, “open an opportunity for Hussein to play a role” in determining the resolution of the Palestinian problem.
Addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Peres warned, however, that the present situation in Lebanon is “dangerous and tense” and “not completely controlled” and can, therefore, escalate into a war. “It is in the interest of all to de-escalate the present tension and avoid a war that can cost dearly to all of us,” Peres declared.
CITES THREE SEPARATE PROBLEMS
He said the Lebanese situation is marked by three separate problems: The Syrian presence in the country, Lebanon’s independence, and the Israeli involvement in that country.
The Syrian forces in Lebanon should be “contained” in their present positions until they withdraw completely from the country, Peres said. The United States’ major task is to keep Syria from dominating Lebanon and to help President Amin Gemayel to form “a national union government” in an independent Lebanon, he stated.
As for Israel, Peres said that she should unilaterally implement her May 17 agreement with Lebanon and apply all the security arrangements in the treaty to protect Israel’s northern border. “Once the agreement is implemented our army can come home, ” Peres said, noting that the withdrawal of Israeli troops can be done “without waiting” for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. “I am for an immediate decision on this issue,” Peres said.
He also said that Israel’s future demands an end to the current government policy of establishing new settlements in densely Arab populated areas in the West Bank. He said this must be done in order “to keep Israel Jewish and create alternatives for peace.”
He said, in response to a question, that the Labor Party’s conditions for joining a national unity government are changes in the government’s settlement policy; an end to the war in Lebanon, and a new government initiative to revive the peace process in the Mideast. Israel should seek to re-open the autonomy negotiations with Egypt, Peres said.
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